Case Studies Number Four--amazon.com:Navigation

Two navigation systems can be found on the home page and labels are used to group contents together in the navigation systems. These labels make sense to me and I know if I click a label such as garden, it will not lead me to the section where kitchen accessories are.

The primary navigation system is more prominent than other navigation because of its color and position. The site was designed in this way since the primary navigation is the most essential tool that guides users to different sections in the site. However, the primary navigation "disappears" if I visit further level pages. It does not disappear from the page but hides as a drop down menu.

Home page primary navigation

Other page primary navigation




Since navigation systems disappear, I could not tell if the link which I click change or not.

As far as I know, amazon.com has changed its site look and navigation systems. However, I find the new version of the site more confusing than before. I always know where I am in the site by looking at the navigation bar (where locations are showed) in the previous version of amazon.com. Now, that navigation bar is no longer exist or designers decided to eliminate it which is a really bad idea of deleting such important feature.

I can always click on the amazon.com's logo to go back to the home, so there is no problem of going back to home page at all.